I Have a Rendezvous With Death
by Scars of Friendship
Summary: TimeTravel!AU, S/C. Aerith is willing to give all that she is for things to start over again. Even her own existence. In a world where the last Cetra is already dead, the stakes are higher than ever for those left who remember to stop Jenova from returning to strength.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**:_I Have a Rendezvous With Death_  
**Rating**: M  
**Main Pairings**: Sephiroth/Cloud, Rufus/Reno.**  
Genre**: Action/Adventure, Romance, Angst, Time travel  
**Warnings**: Character death, M/M scenes, language, eventual graphic sex scenes, graphic violence, terrorism and other canonical warnings. NOTE that these warnings will not be given chapter by chapter!  
**Chapter**: 1/24  
**Comments**: Because I love time travel fics and I can't help but play at my own. Teaser for the rest of the fic I guess.

**Prologue: A Rendezvous With Death **

To do this is to cease to exist. To have ever existed. It is to undo the essence that had created her. To forfeit her right to even be a part of the world.

It is a sacrifice beyond anything she had given so far.

It was all right though.

She could feel Zack beside her, around her, his presence almost suffocating in its worry, in its warnings, in its condemnation. She could almost hear his voice trying to call her back from this step, but she would no more back down now than she would have done all those years ago when Sephiroth's sword separated her soul from her body.

And what options did they have?

Cloud had no more defeated Jenova this time than he had all the rest. She would never die, never cease existence, unless something drastic was done.

And it was all right.

Aerith didn't even think it was a choice. Her existence for Jenova's obliteration? It was almost a laughably small price to pay.

The Cetra had refused her plea when she had requested they intervene in the suffering of her friends. But they did not have the humanity, or the power, that she possessed. They didn't hear the screams of the _humans_ anymore, just the Planet's wailing cries.

Aerith knew that Cloud couldn't fight Jenova again. Couldn't fight _Sephiroth_ again.

Zack's presence became more oppressive than ever and Aerith closed her eyes, letting him brush against her before gently pressing him away. She could feel his alarm, but there was nothing that her SOLDIER could do anymore.

She caught the darkness in the corner of her eye. The lurking presence that always was in background, just out of sight.

Sephiroth.

She steeled her determination, turning towards the darkness and clenching her fists.

The whole of her life, the whole of her being, everything she ever was, everything she ever could be, and everything she would have been again. She offered it all.

As her glowing energy began to unravel, she felt the darkness reach out to her, touching her gently like her mother used to stroke her hair.

_Thank you_.


	2. Chapter 2

Title:_I Have a Rendezvous With Death_  
Chapter: 2/24  
Comments: Another short chapter, as really, it's just setting up. I imagine chapters will get longer as we get further in and more characters are introduced.

* * *

**Chapter One: At some disputed barricade**

* * *

Sephiroth surveyed the carnage with measured calmness radiating from him. They were taking casualties, certainly, but they were still currently _winning_ and that was the important part. Despite his… _distraction_… in recent days, he had managed to put together a plan that would push back the Wutaian forces _and_ give them some breathing room for the next attack.

All in all, it was a job well done. Although he supposed that those lying dead on the battlefield wouldn't agree with him.

He knew his friends were heading the other battalions. Genesis and Angeal were never far away these days and Sephiroth had grown to accept their presence. At first he hadn't liked either of them, Angeal with his pie-in-the-sky talk of honour or Genesis with his airy-fairy nonsense about poetry. But he'd been warned by his father to _play nice_, and so he had tolerated their presence until it didn't grate on him anymore.

Angeal had explained that was called friendship and Sephiroth guessed that it was as close to the feeling as he could get.

At least he could trust them to fight well in battle, even if they weren't as strong as he was.

"General Sephiroth, sir!"

Sephiroth looked up. The MP was probably older than him. He was the youngest General to have ever taken command, and now he was twenty he had a glittering record for winning every battle.

He'd heard that they had taken to calling him the 'Demon of Wutai'.

"What is it, Sergeant?" he asked. The man's spine straightened even further when he felt Sephiroth's gaze on him.

"General Angeal wishes to know if you require him to push the East Flank or if it would be wiser to reunite with Genesis' forces and then go in for the final push," he said. Sephiroth sighed. Angeal often left tactical decisions to him. Genesis thought he was far too clever to ever defer to Sephiroth's judgement but Angeal was too much of a bogstandard soldier to think of in depth tactics.

"Reunite with Genesis' army. We would lose too many soldiers pushing the East and it won't do anything to stop their inevitable defeat," he said. The soldier saluted and Sephiroth watched him go.

The rest of the afternoon passed with regular reports and at no point did Sephiroth even have to attend the field himself. It was a flawless victory and by nightfall the pyres had been lit to burn the war dead. The stench of burning flesh a smell that Sephiroth would always associate with a well done victory.

Angeal and Genesis both sent him messages on the state of their troops, as well as promises to submit full reports later. After making sure that he sent appropriate orders and delegated all the relevant tasks for moving the army from this spot onto the next encampment spot, Sephiroth sagged onto his bunk.

It was time to rest. Even if for a few hours.

He hadn't been sleeping lately and was running on less than a few hours sleep. He knew that he could last a few more days, but while there was a lull in the battles, it wouldn't hurt to try to recharge at least a little. He was aware that a tired leader was bad for morale.

He closed his eyes, forcing his body to relax as the cheap electrical lights flickered in his tent. He put an arm over his eyes and felt the beautiful sink into sleep-

_Painterrorconfusionwhyfatheraminothumanwhatisthism onsterwhyisitwhatisitnozack_

Sephiroth's eyes flew open, his heart racing. There it was again, the nightmare that had been haunting him. A flash of green, mako bright, and the terrifying confusion. Sometimes he felt fire on his face, sometimes he heard people screaming his name in anger and frustration… sometimes he felt the cold hard metal pierce his body.

For now there was no visual however, and he was reluctant to report to his father about anything that he wasn't sure of himself. Besides, what would he say to Hojo?

_I'm having bad dreams but I don't really know what they're about but they are very, very real seeming._

No. He wasn't going to say that to Hojo. Not ever. He'd rather cut out his own tongue than go to his father with something as pathetic as that on his lips.

He lay back.

If he could not sleep, he could at least just lay still for a while and try to work out what it all meant himself.

* * *

Zack drew breath. Once. Twice. Three times. Each one felt like a new scar on his soul. A tear so deep it would never heal, never go away. The pain. Oh god the pain.

He was breathing while she did not.

When he had woken in the body of his thirteen year old self he had first done the only thing that had come to mind. He had screamed. Screamed and screamed until his mother came in and shushed him, stroking his hair and asking if he had a nightmare.

He had babbled and cried and hit futilely against the bed and she had been concerned and called a doctor. The doctor had been and gone and Zack had been sedated, diagnosed with night terrors.

The second night, when he awoke, he had spent the day feverishly pouring over newspapers around his house. He hadn't spoken a word, staring at picture after picture of Sephiroth. This was his fault. All his fault. If he hadn't done what he did then Aerith would be… Aerith would be…

The third night had been the worst. He had dreamed of her. Dreamed that she was still alive. He had held her, his arms superpowered and his body that of an adult. And when he'd woken, she hadn't been in his arms, which were wrapped around a duvet.

That night the scream had been silent and the grief had been muted.

Now it was the fourth day and Zack felt the pain so deep within he didn't feel he was anything but grief. His mother had tried to get it out of him, exactly what it was that had happened, but he refused to talk.

He did start to write things down though. While his memory was fresh he wrote down everything he could remember, no matter if it seemed significant or not. Dates and events, random snatches of conversation. Bits and pieces of remembered childhood.

He threw them all together. By evening he had almost filled the entire book. His hand ached. His untidy, shaky scrawl, detailing the next ten years of events in an eerily prophetic but completely illegible stream of consciousness.

He laid his pen down, looking at the thing before his eye fell to one.

_Cloud joined the army at 14._

That would be in two years time.

He could… is that why he could remember? Because he was supposed to do something about this? He was pretty sure that shouting the future round the town square wouldn't help much but if he could influence Cloud… If he could influence Sephiroth…

Zack ran his hands through his hair.

Cloud was in Nibelheim though, and that was far away from Gongaga. What he needed to do was… was get his parents to move within the next two years.

Oh boy.


End file.
